Vince Nemanic

This is something I have been pondering for awhile: how many molds are out there? Yes, there are thousands of releases, but how many actual sets of tools? Consider the following: The AMT '57 Chevy and '57 Ford have been issued many, many times and the tools were changed to remove their custom parts, but there are still only two sets of molds. The original Revell Stone, Woods & Cooke Willys was issued as the SWC (at least twice), Grease , Happy Days, and several others. But still one tool. There were many annual kits and promos, but there were far fewer tools, because the mold was updated year by year and often used for hardtops and convertibles as both kits and promos. For example, the AMT '61 to '63 Thunderbird was made as hardtop and convertible promos and kits, plus the slot car. The convertible interior was the same as the hardtop, but there were inserts to change the rear package shelf. Since inserts were also used to change between hardtop and convertible or promo and opening hood, it was still one tool I guess this is hijacking the thread, but any thoughts?

I have a Japanese spec kit with the horizontal slit lights. It was from either Hasegawa or Fujimi, I forget which.

Back in the '60s the car companies paid the model companies to make promos for them. After the promos were done, the model companies were free to make kits from the molds. The car manufacturers wanted promos of their sportier cars, not their bread and butter ones. Chevy used to have Corvettes and convertibles on the showroom with the expectation of you driving out in a Bel Air wagon- the ones they REALLY made their money off of. Things have changed- now the model companies pay the car manufacturers to make models, and try to find a new 2 door non pickup or non sports car.

I think that Howard Cohen's pictures are of a "tribute" car. Several details are incorrect-for instance, it has a small block Chevy engine.

I assume the tools had some sort of writing or stamping, but the index list was lost at some point.

Many years ago, Dave Burket told me that most of the kits he had reissued needed the clear parts to be retooled. Since the clear stuff was made from smaller tools, they often got separated from the rest of the tools, and since the tools weren't labelled it was easier to retool the parts than to search hundreds of molds to see if the correct one was there. A matter of time, effort, and money. It really surprised me that there was no master list of the tools (assuming that there was some kind of ID on the molds.

Jon, there is a thread on the HAMB about Roy Brizio's restoration. It is called something like "Driving the Kookie T back to 1958". There are over 100 pics of the disassembly, restoration, and display of the finished car. The pic of the car in bare metal is just one of the photos in the thread. You can probably google it if you don't belong to the HAMB.

The tall rear spoiler was produce to homologate it for racing. It was used in the 1970 Trans Am series, which began in April 1970. I scratch built a very crude tall spoiler on an AMT Camaro that I began on June 6, 1970. I remember the date because the TV news said that Bruce McLaren had been killed that day.

When I was a college student in the 1970s I lived about a quarter mile from the McCoy race shop. They always kept the doors closes- no easy feat in the Modesto summer temps!

In the 70s, Road and Track did a road test in their April issue for a 8 liter Mercedes Benz GT. It was a Garbage Truck! Duke, your post reminded me of that!

I'm not doubting the difficulty of getting licensing. But it has now been shown that there are as many as five current GM licensees, so the statement that GM only allows one license at a time is incorrect. If GM only allowed ONE licensee, then the other multiple licenses would not exist, and we could not buy GM models from any other model company but one. The person that claimed to be a Mobius rep (if he really was one) was lying to dodge the question about the Novas.

Wasn't the Dart body modified and used on the Tony Nancy 22jr chassis in the Dodge Revellion?

The statement was that GM wants only ONE license holder at a time, yet it already has TWO! The statement was NOT that it didn't want another license holder. Currently having two license holders is a contradiction of the Moebius rep's statement.

You should have asked the Moebius rep to explain how Revell and AMT manage to both have GM kits in their inventories. I think he was pulling your leg.

I reported this to the Testors Facebook page and received this responsxe: Testors Hi Vincent, this bulletin did not originate from Rust-Oleum or Testors. Rust-Oleum continues to sell the Testors brand in the US and Canada. We hope that this helps, if you have any additional questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us!

It is not on the Rustoleum site or on the Testors facebook page. I left a message on the facebook page a feew minutes ago.

In case you're wondering, those "Fordgone" decals are from the AMT71 Mustang annual. I had the kit when it was new.

I help out with the NNL Western Nationals every year by ushering vendors to their tables before the public is allowed in. The doors open to the public at 9 AM and remain open until the close of the show around 3 PM. The awards are by vote for People's Choice (Adult and Junior), plus there are some private awards. The models are not judged, and the swap meet runs concurrently with the NNL.

In early 1984, a bunch of us went to dinner after the first NNL Western Nationals. One well known modeler (who can identify himself if he wants) presented a plan to the group. He had contacted Revell in Venice CA (before the Monogram merger) about having a private run of kits made. He was told that there was a requirement of three runs of 5000 bagged kits with instructions- no box or decals- for X amount of dollars. If each of us at the dinner invested $1000 we could have gotten the ball rolling- it might as well have been a million for me. Less than a year later, the Advent line of kits were released. The relevance to this discussion was that we were told that Revell had ALL of their old tools up to that point. In the intervening years with all of the mergers, moves, and changes in management, who knows what happened to all of the tools, but the information is interesting.

I'm very pleased to hear of the full bumper Camaro- the Enduro nose was not used in the Trans Am because it weighed something like 80 pounds more than the full bumper, and the road racers weren't allowed to replace it with empty fiberglass like the drag cars could.

NNL West #1 was held about two weeks before I was hired for my first teaching position. I lived about five miles from the site and didn't know about it. I met Don Graham Bruce Treadwell and Doane Yawger about three weeks before NNL West #3 in Turlock.

So VW expects a model manufacturer to invest over a half million dollars before the kit is licensed? In other words, I'm not holding my breath for any new VW models.

David, the AMT "66 Impala engine is in the '60 Ranchero kit.

There was a segment where a GM guy told Jay Leno that the purpose of wraps like that is to throw off the autofocus of the spy photographers. As you can tell, it works REALLY well, doesn't it? LOL.

It might be the interior floor from the Phantom Vicky.